7 Steps for Developing a Marketing or Advertising Tag Line
by Bobette Kyle

A tag line is a catchy one or two line phrase associated with a product, campaign or business. These are often developed by big-name advertising agencies as part of an advertising or branding campaign. But big-name agencies come with big price tags ― beyond the reach of many small businesses. If you are in this situation, don't despair. With some creativity and persistence, you can develop your own tag lines.

(1) Decide what you want your tag line to communicate.

If you have a positioning statement and/or unique selling proposition, write them down and keep them close at hand. Your tag line should reinforce them. Ask yourself these questions.

- Who are your customers? - What benefits do you give your customers? - What feelings do you want to evoke in your customers? - What action are you trying to generate from your customers? - How are you different from your competition?

Try to get one or more of these across in your tag line.

(2) Begin brainstorming preparation.

Gather tag lines from other advertising campaigns and brands. Look in other categories besides your own and try to find brand and company tag lines from both large and small companies.

As you find tag lines, write them on index cards or individual slips of paper. You will be mixing, matching, and pairing them with unrelated items as you brainstorm your own tag line. Pay attention to the words used, how they are put together, and which of the above questions they address. By doing this, you are more likely to come up with your own unique angle.

NOTE: You are looking at others' tag lines only to spark ideas, not copy them. You must come up with your own, original tag line.

To find example marketing tag lines, look around. Anywhere you find advertisements, packaging, or logos you will also find tag lines. Look in cupboards, around desks, in magazines, on TV/radio commercials, in print advertisements, and on Web sites. For example:

Presidential Campaign Tag Lines

The 2008 presidential election campaigns are beginning to kick in. Some early tag lines associated with presidential campaigns include:

- MoveOn: "Democracy in Action"
- ICanBePresident.com: "Women for Hillary" (Clinton)
- Rudy Giuliani: "Rudy"
- Barak Obama: "Obama '08"

Not a lot of creativity as of April 2007, but each conveys a desired action or goal.

Movie Marketing Tag Lines

Movie marketers must catch movie-goers attention quickly, so often develop a concise, catchy marketing tag line to express the film's most appealing feature. This feature may be one of the people involved with the film (The Departed was first advertised as "A Martin Scorsese film," for example) or one of the characters (Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End: "Jack Sparrow Returns!"). Movie tag lines can also serve to communicate a feeling (disturbia: "Every killer lives next door to someone"). Peruse current movies for tag line ideas online or in your newspaper. You can also take a look at a list of 100 great movie tag lines.

Restaurant Tag Lines

Restaurant tag lines tend to be a bit more creative and subtle. Often accompanied by a lively tune in commercials, these tag lines are intended to get the targeted consumer up, out the door, and into the restaurant or drive-thru (sometimes in terms only the target market would find less than bizarre):

- Burger King: "Wake up with the King."
- Taco Bell : "Good to Go," "Think Outside the Bun," "Run for the Border," (Example of a tag line that flopped: In the late '80's, when I was a Taco Bell store manager, Taco Bell had a short-lived, one-word tag line: "Hello". We had to answer the restaurant telephone with "Hello, Taco Bell!" Uhhhmmmm. Whatever.)
- McDonald's: "You deserve a break today."

Famous Advertising Tag Lines

Many classic tag lines also convey a critical benefit or unique feature:

- Alka Selzer: "Plop plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.
- Rice Krispies cereal: "Snap, Crackle, Pop!"
- Johnson's Baby Shampoo: "No more tears."
- M&M's: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands."
- Milk: "Milk. It does a body good."
- McDonald's Big Mac: "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun."

(3) Find your competitors' tag lines.

Look at them and strive to be better and different.

(4) Gather together books and resources to help you come up with different ways to phrase similar ideas.

Some of my favorite books are "Word Menu," "Flip Dictionary" and "The Describer's Dictionary." Online, search through synonym and antonym finders such as synonym.com or rhymezone.com.

(5) Conduct a brainstorming session.

This works best if you can get a small group together, but can also be done solo. Set up a place with a lot of writing space - use dry erase boards, easels with big paper pads, note cards, etc.

Go through your props. Look up words or concepts in the books. Rearrange your various props so you can look at them in different ways. Write down everything that comes to mind and all the new ideas each phrase sparks. They do not have to make sense. At this point, you want a large number of ideas.

(6) Consolidate your list.

After brainstorming, go through all of your ideas. Pull out those few you think have the best potential. Try to reduce longer tag lines to fewer words.

(7) Choose the one best tag line.

You should be left with a short list of possibilities. To pick the single best tag line, get others' opinions. If you have funds budgeted for tag line development, work with a market research firm to test the tag lines with your customers.

You can also conduct informal research. Set up a free or professional survey at SurveyMonkey.com and encourage people to take the survey through your Website. If you have direct contact with customers, ask them what they think. Give them an incentive to help you, such as a discount or small freebie.

When you are done, you will have a tag line that will help your business thrive.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 15+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, online marketing experience, and a marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing. Bobette is proprietor at http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business."